Tuesday Morning Links on VTM | Adams Joins Smith's Staff; Evans Joins Hays Staff

1. Adams Joins Smith's Staff | The official site has the best details as Howard JC head coach Mark Adams is joining Tubby Smith's staff as the Director of Basketball Operations. Mark Adams is the father of current player Luke Adams and Mark was and is a fantastic coach at Howard. Here's head coach Tubby Smith:

"Mark brings a lot of experience," said Smith. "He is well respected throughout college basketball at every level. He grew up and has lived in the Lubbock area all of his life, outside of the time he has spent coaching elsewhere. We are excited to have him onboard. His job will involve many hats. This is a transition for him. This will be a different job description for Mark, but we think he is up for the challenge."

So yes, I think this is a fantastic hire and I actually thought that Mark should have been considered for the head coaching job as he was really that good, is a Red Raider and was a successful head coach. Adams' connections in the JUCO coaching world should open up a lot of doors for recruiting the Texas JUCO scene.

2. Evans Joins Hays Staff | Again, per the official site, former baseball coach at Texas Tech and Oklahoma St., Greg Evans, is joining Shanon Hays' coaching staff as an assistant coach. Here is coach Hays:

"I am really excited to add Greg to our staff," Hays said. "I tried to hire him last year when Coach Fox left for UTA but the timing wasn't right for him. He is one of the best infield coaches in the country and his record as a defensive coach speaks for itself. He's a perfect fit for our program because he knows the game of fastpitch from when he used to play in the summers with me, dad, and Daren (Hays). He's also known as an excellent recruiter in baseball and I think that will translate to the fastpitch game as well."

From reading some of the reaction, it appears that Evans is well liked, so hopefully this will work out for Hays. The LAJ also recaps Evans' hire.

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3. "Beyond the Finish Line" | From the NY Times, just a heartbreaking, wonderful and uplifting story of a man working through rehab after losing both legs from the Boston Marathon bombings as he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish the race.

4. New Campus Photos | From Totally Texas Tech, new photos from the campus. One thing that I didn't realize regarding the new video board was that additional seating was being added. I had never noticed this when looking at the schematics for the project and I was asked about this during my interview with EMAWdio. I told him that I didn't know what he was talking about. I couldn't have been more wrong!

5. Realignmentpalooza with Frank the Tank | Great realignment stuff (calling rindworld) from Frank the Tank on a Q&A with Burnt Orange Nation.

6. Red Zone Defenses in the Big 12 | Blatant Homerism has an excellent look at red zone defenses in the Big 12, especially coming off the heels of head coach Kliff Kingsbury stating that he knows that the defense is going to give up yards, but wants the defense to tighten up and not give up touchdowns. Good stuff.

7. Talking Quarterbacks | The DMN takes a look at QB Michael Brewer, what they like and don't like. Also, RP ranks the Big 12 quarterbacks and I have serious questions about this list, but whatever. QB Casey Pachall isn't even on the list with the comment being made that TCU QB Treyvon Boykin made TCU a better offense over QB Casey Pachall. According to Football Outsiders F/+ rankings, TCU was 70th in offense in 2012 and 17th in 2011. I think that Pachall is going to be pretty darned good this year.

8. Top Football Coaches | SI's Stewart Mandel has their list of the top 10 coaches and worst 5 coaches. There are some Big 12 coaches in the list, including Gary Patterson, Bill Snyder (Snyder should be ahead of Patterson), Bob Stoops and Art Briles.

9. Catching Up with Biggurs | The LAJ catches up with former Red Raider Charlie Biggurs, who has a church in Lancaster. Biggurs also has a son who will be a junior at Coppell, Curtis, and is already 6-4/235 and Charlie says that they don't have a choice but to look at Texas Tech.